Ben Pettit

Sustained injury.

She was just like everyone else her age. She wanted to fit in. She wore the right clothes and went to the right school. She drove the right car. She wanted to be loved. She wanted to be cared for. He was one of the popular kids. When he asked her out, she of course said yes. He was a jerk and forced her to go beyond where she wanted to go. She never told anyone. 6 years later she’s still hurting and wanting to be loved and cherished more than anything. She never could see the One who loved her more than anyone…

Sustained surface.

He did it all right. He led the worship music for his youth group. He took every opportunity to learn the right information to succeed. He wanted wisdom more than anything in the world. He made friends with the right people, and he fit in on the surface level. But, he always wanted someone to ask him how his day was and actually care enough to make eye contact and listen to his answer.  He was hurting inside, but so put together on the outside so that no one could ever tell. He had the occasional drink, but never to much. He loved the Lord but it seemed like his church friends were worse at friendship than his non-Christian friends. At least the non-churched friends cared enough to listen…

Sustained permanence.

Her father passed away tragically when she was 13. She was a daddy’s girl. She depended on him for so much. Her mother was very strict on her. Mom said that she couldn’t go out with a boy until she was 16. So at 14 she started dating a guy who was 19. Her mom never knew and she sneaked around her back for months. The boy said that he loved her and wanted to show her. She said no, but he persisted. She had pain for the next week. She finally had to tell her mother, and they went to a specialist in Dallas. The violence was extensive and permanent. She’ll never be able to bear children…

Sustained identity

She had pink hair. She would do anything to stand out in a crowd. She would never smile for a picture. Her parents were divorced, and she didn’t even know what a family ever was or could be. She looked for acceptance in all places. Places in the youth group and in the party circle too. Bible lessons Wednesday night and drunkenness Friday. She got dared to kiss a girl. She liked it and felt ok with it. For the next 4 years she would struggle with who she was. Holding on to the sin so hard and believing that’s who she was now. Never grasping the love and freedom that comes from her heavenly Father…

They just needed love. Sustained,

love from the Father.

What is Wednesday you ask?

I grew up in a minister’s family. Half of my life my Dad was bi-vocational, what does that mean you say? It means he did a full time job with part time pay. We never had money, so what? What does money matter anyway? I mean sure, everyone wants nice things, even me. BUT, how often do we let it consume us?

My prayer for myself and you the reader is this… That we would become consumed with giving every thing we have away.

Rick Warren from his enormous books sales has paid back his salary from Saddleback for the past 25 years and established 3 foundations. He now gives away 90% of his income and lives off of 10%. You would never hear about that in our liberal media though. You would rather hear slanders about pastors or hit and miss TV evangelist who are filthy rich.

So all that to say: You don’t have to have a lot of money, to do a lot of good. Sure Rick Warren has done some great stuff with his money, but who cares? What I mean is, good, good for him. Now what can we do better? It’s Wednesday, what can you do today, Wednesday, to better someone’s life? How can you love better? How can you give more? Who and how can you pour into people, today, Wednesday?

Here is a short list of some random ideas off the top of my head this morning:

• Take someone out to lunch and encourage them.
• Buy someone’s cup of coffee and have a meaningful conversation.
• Send your wife or girl friend flowers just to say this: It’s Wednesday and I love you.
• Buy or even better make, your husband or boy friends favorite dinner tonight.
• Visit the grandparents that you have been putting off seeing.
• Mow someone’s lawn for them.
• Grab the coffee pot at work on your break. Walk around cube world offer some coffee and an encouraging word.

Feel free to add any thoughts or ideas of your own as comments. I’d love to hear them.

Lord, I pray that we would put ourselves last. That we would fully become your servant so that others would see your love and compassion screaming through our bones. Lord let us constantly be advancing your Kingdom. We want to be vessels of your truth. Give us a hunger for your word like we have never felt before. The words of your mouth sustain us today. It’s Wednesday, today, Wednesday, speak through us, work through us, let us walk away from Wednesday changed.

UPDATE: I didn’t listen to Point of Grace’s country  song “How You Live” before I wrote this, but if you haven’t heard it, it makes for a nice invitational hymn.

A big question has risen lately. What does it mean to be Authentic? What does it look like? What does it feel like? How does it act? How does it speak? What does it look like in our churches?

Problem:

Stacy and I were discussing it this morning. We have mutually and separately known people as I know you do, that are truly not authentic. I’ll use two of my favorite generic names Bob and Sally to explain it. Situationally it goes something like this:

Bob: [very excitingly] Hey Sally, what’s up?
[Bob begins to look around the room not making eye contact with Sally]
Sally: Not to much Bob, been really busy with work and family.
Bob: cool, how are your folks?
[Bob continues to look around the room for the next person to talk to...]
Sally: They’re fine. [Sally begins to get bored at Bob's silly small talk...]
[new girl Jane walks up, Bob loses interest in Sally and turns to Jane]
Bob: Hey Jane, what’s up?

So this situation might have happened to you this week. It seems it happens more than we want. Someone ask you a question that they really don’t care about and it’s as if they never really cared if you respond to them. We as people, as Christians and as leaders are sometimes guilty of this. I have a lot of friends in ministry who attempt to go to Pastor mode but instead go to social networking mode. They miss the whole shepherd part and jump straight into small talk. With Facebook, Myspace, and every other web 2.0 service coming everyday, this is our unfortunate result. Shallow conversations and shallow relationships.

Solution:

Have meaningful conversations as often as possible. Avoid the small talk. Talk about things that really matter. Care about the people around you. Life isn’t as much about getting ahead as you might think. It’s about serving the Lord by serving people. Go out of your way to do something special for someone today. I love this thought. If you are feeling down and you need encouragement, get past your self and go encourage someone else first. If you feel like you don’t have a friend in the world, go reach out and be someone else’s friend first. Life sometimes takes some initiative. Other wise, you are just sitting still.